


Sugar and Snails: How Rory Williams took the first steps towards a medical career

by Kalypso



Series: The Rory Williams trilogy [1]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-13
Updated: 2010-07-13
Packaged: 2018-01-01 04:49:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1040526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalypso/pseuds/Kalypso
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Young Rory stands up for girls in general, and Amelia in particular.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sugar and Snails: How Rory Williams took the first steps towards a medical career

"Rory is a girl, Rory is a girl!"

"No I'm not."

"You're always playing with girls."

"What's wrong with girls?"

"Girls are boring," said Jeff. "They play with dolls, and when they grow up they do boring jobs... like nurses. And they just want to get married."

"They don't have to do boring jobs," protested Rory. "Lots of them do interesting things."

"Like?"

"Like..." His mind went blank. He could only think of nurses, but that was silly, because they could do lots of things, like... "Doctors!" he said. "There are lady doctors now."

He wished he hadn't said that, because now he was thinking about the lady doctor who had been to Amelia's house last week, and anyway, he knew what Jeff would say next.

"Yeah, raggedy doctors, would that be? Like your crazy friend is always going on about?"

"She's not crazy! Anyway, that was a man."

"Yeah, right, a box fell out of the sky, and a man came out of it, and she cooked weird food for him, and then he and his box vanished into thin air..."

"You weren't there," said Rory. "How do you know what happened? Anyway, what about that time you said you'd been to Australia to go surfing for the weekend?"

Jeff looked defensive for once. "I _could_ have been to Australia. But people don't fall out of the sky. Amelia makes things up that couldn't possibly be true. And she believes them! She's bonkers."

"No she's not."

"You're bonkers too. You pretend to be him."

"It's just a game." Actually, he quite enjoyed playing the Raggedy Doctor, except when Amelia made him eat the fish custard. He liked driving off monsters with a wave of his magic thermometer. And he always finished the game alive. When they played Roman soldiers, it usually ended up with him lying on the floor while she drove her sword into his chest.

"You don't believe her, then?"

Rory hesitated for a moment. "Yes. I do."

He hadn't really known whether he believed it or not - maybe he still didn't know. But after he'd seen the lady doctor drive away he went round to Amelia's, and found her sitting in the garden - just where she'd told him she waited that night for the Raggedy Doctor - hugging herself tightly.

"Shut up," she said when he asked if she wanted to play. "Shut up!"

So he sat down a few feet away, and waited until she shuddered and started to speak again.

"No one believes me," she said. "They think I'm... They're trying to tell me what to think... what I know."

"I believe you," Rory said. If Amelia believed it, that was all that mattered. "I'll never try to make you think or do anything you don't want. I'll always let you choose."

"Promise?"

"Cross my heart."

She reached out her hand, and he tumbled across the ground to grasp it. He'd never been so proud or happy in all his life.

"I believe her," he insisted to Jeff.

"You're nuts. Both of you. The rest of us will go off to make our fortunes, but you're going to end up sitting around this village doing nothing for ever."

"Amelia could do anything!"

"She could make _you_ do anything. She'll make you dress up as a girl next. With a skirt and a ponytail."

"David Beckham wore that skirt-thing last week..."

"That's different."

"Why?"

"He's good at football. You're not good at football."

"I'm not _bad_ ," muttered Rory, which was a fair point, but he didn't think the skirt-thing would look good on him, anyway. "So, what are you going to do to make your fortune?"

"I'm going to be a banker," said Jeff. "My dad says they make lots of money and live in big houses with lots of stuff. What are _you_ going to do?"

"I dunno," said Rory. "I want..." He looked across the playground and saw Amelia standing alone by the gate, her face brightening as she saw him.

"I want to make people feel better."


End file.
